Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Getting Out by Ryan Westfield is a basic Post Apocalyptic EMP story about several people who find themselves trying to evacuate themselves from their urban environments to rural homes/hunting cabins in order to find protection from the imminent fall of law and order in the city. The EMP (never told if this was due to solar flare or man-made attack) has knocked out electrical systems and electronics far and wide. Causing a break down of societal restrictions ending in mob violence. The characters are Max, an office worker; Mandy, Max's neighbor who, apparently has no background at all since the author never tells the reader; Georgia, who likes to hunt, has big boobs and is divorced. Georgia's two teen children; and Chad, Max's childhood friend who is now a drug addict and mostly a worthless burden on society. All these characters eventually meet up, literally at a cross road, at night in the middle of a rain storm. Crash! As it turns out, Max's Jeep and Georgia's recently acquired new SUV both run without a problem, since the EMP which has destroyed every electronic device around, has somehow miraculously bypassed the computer modules in their two vehicles. It isn't a complete miss, though as the radios and seat warmers have bitten the dust. The author has several glaring flaws like this throughout the story. At one point, the combined group runs into prisoners that have escaped from the local prison, however the author has failed to mention any prison up to that point. Max's group is detained and interrogated to find out if they're with the Russians or the Chinese... this on the same day the EMP strikes. WTH? Georgia and her kids try to raid a neighbor's home, thinking they were away from home, at work. The result is that they steal two containers of 'lawn mower' gas and put it in her truck. Naturally, the gas has oil mixed in and destroys the truck engine. (Actually, a gas engine WILL run with an oil-gas mixture - it will just be less powerful and will smoke a lot). The author gives virtually zero background for any of the characters, other than just a minor reference to Max and Chad having been friends. The rest of the characters? Not so much... at all. They may as well have been made up on the spot. Well actually, the author did just that. The author included several other minor characters, one of wich was a woman who has a back story that gives the reader more of a history for her than any other character in the book. If the author had eliminated all the minor characters and used the time fleshing out the main characters, it would have been a much more interesting read. I'm not even going to read book two in this series. I don't think Mr. Westfield will have learned much by writing the first installment. If you don't realize you've made mistakes, you'll keep making them. There are a few spelling errors plus one error in logic that just floored me. Not going to continue with this author's works, that's for sure.